


D&D - Pact

by rprambles



Series: Argenthrix Kilrash [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Anxiety, As you do, Fear, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Living on the streets, On the Run, twelve year old db makes a pact with an eldritch being, warlock pact
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 02:04:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20922353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rprambles/pseuds/rprambles





	D&D - Pact

Life had never been easy, but the worst began when his father didn't come home.

Sometimes Father would be early or late, sailing was funny like that. But he'd never been a month late. Mother went to the docks every day to ask for his ship. Kilrash looked after Mishan, teaching his little sister to follow him and say please and thank you.

After two months Mother stopped going to the docks. She stopped doing much at all. When Kilrash asked about dinner she told him to eat some bread and cheese. Mishan asked to play and she said she was too tired. When they ran out of bread Mother told Kilrash where she kept the gold. He asked a guard for directions the first couple times.

He was embarrassed by how long it took him to realize that Mother wasn't eating. By then she was thin, scales dull and sickly. He made a focused effort to get her to eat something. Even just a nibble.

One day he came into her room and she didn't move. The bed was wet and a knife lay in her hand.

He shut the door. When Mishan asked he said Mother was sleeping. When the gold ran out he wasn't sure what to do. He asked for help from the merchants, but most turned him away. When his stomach starts to ache and Mishan cries that she's hungry, he learns to steal.

Mother was starting to smell by then. A guard came to the door and asked for her. Kilrash lied, telling him she's at the fish market. And then he had to go steal a fish because Mishan heard him.

The guard came back the next day. Kilrash said Mother was sleeping, but he didn't think the guard believed it, because he came back the next day. With another guard and a cleric.

The cleric knew Mother was dead, never even asked. They told Kilrash in a kind voice that it wasn't healthy to stay. So Kilrash picked up his sister and followed the cleric out of the house. "What will happen to us?" he asked.

"Tonight you'll stay at the temple. I will take you to the orphanage in the morning."

"...will they split us up?"

"Possibly."

Mishan hugs his neck and whines. "Nooo. My Rashi."

"Some things are out of our control, my child."

She started to cry, little claws digging into his scales. Kilrash patted her back. "It's okay, Mishi. I'm not going anywhere."

That night he took the blankets the clerics gave them, stole some food from the kitchen, and carried his sister off into the night.

It's not easy. They can't settle anywhere, stealing to survive. A couple times he gets caught and has to break out of a cell and it takes hours to calm his sister. Sometimes he regrets this choice, but Mishan's smile when he comes back even after five minutes reassures him. 

Kilrash has awful nightmares sometimes. Waking up to Mishan dead in the night, strange figures stealing her away, his mother shambling and covered in blood.

The dreams shift after a while. Dark purple-black scales, a shifting mass, huge razor sharp fangs closing around the fears. He wishes it was so easy.

The next time he dreams is stranger still. Darkness and twisting fog. Pale fangs and dark scales emerge, a mouth large enough to swallow cities. Two yellow slitted eyes open and focus on him.

_You want power. Ssstrength._

He does. He wants to be strong, enough that Mishan won't worry, that they can eat every day, that he won't be so tired.

_Thisss I can provide. If you will ssserve._

Serve who?

The answer comes to him in a rush. Not in words or images, but he suddenly _knows_.

He wakes with a start. He's not tired anymore, a strange energy in his chest. Mishan grumbles, disturbed by his movements and he nuzzles her gently. "It's alright, Mishi."


End file.
